His actual intention? To ‘bleed Verdun to white’ by causing maximum French casualties – a plan only known to the Kaiser, Emperor of the German Empire. German General Falkenhayn, the mastermind behind the attack, had issued orders to capture the fortress of Verdun in order to give soldiers a believable goal. A small serviceable kitchen is bereft of the warmth of baguettes. Dormitories house beds made out of iron and wood, hardly making for a sound sleep as every sound of shelling reverberated around the fort. Walking inside the fort, witnessing the very area of combat can be crushing. Large scale destruction and loss of life leave deep scars, but can greatly intensify the power of healing of the human spirit. There is something about old war zones that evoke penetrating peace, like Hiroshima. The air is colder here, but all is peaceful. The tourist bus drops visitors off at the site of Fort Douaumont, an impregnable fort amongst the nineteen that protected France against Germany.
Hence, the message ‘Tenir coûte que coûte’ (Resist no matter what) resonated throughout the French divisions. If Verdun fell, so would the French morale. WWI was to be the most gruesome combat to save Verdun from acceding to Germany. Verdun had always been a disputed and mystical territory since Roman times when Atilla decided to burn down the fortified camp of Virodunum (Latin for Verdun) and Charlemagne divided the European empire in three parts, thus giving birth to Germany. Verdun’s climate, the foggiest and wettest in France, had postponed Unternehmen Gericht (Operation Judgement) to 21 February 1916, marking the first phase of the deadly battle that was to go on for 10 long months, severing the bodies and souls of the two warring nations in WWI. ‘Fire!’ called out the German battery commander to his troops who had been waiting to spill French blood since ten days.
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